Form, Structure and Plot By: Cyleena Rodriguez

While the Billy Pilgrim travels through time he experiences several flashbacks with major events  of his past life in war. Foreshadowing is also experienced in the novel while the narrator covers Billy's life before beginning the story.The conflict in the novel is when Billy figuring out life after his experience in war. As he sobs uncontrollably it shows us Billys post traumatic stress disorder from the war. "So they were trying to re-invent themselves and their universe... Science fiction was a big help." The rising action involves when Billy and the prisoners are being transported across Germany and living in the slaughter house while working in Dresdon. When Dresdon is bombed and Billy is not around to experience it,  it creates the climax of the story. As Billy undergoes struggle with differentiating real life with time travel and begins to be wise towards others after his experience with the Trafalmadorians creates the fallling action of the story. "I am a tralfamadorian, seeing all time as you might see a stretch of the Rocky Mountains. All time is all time. It does not change. It does not lend itself to warnings or explanations. It simply is."As the structure of this novel does not reflect a "stereotypical" structure, Vonnegut shows the absurdity of war and Billy.

Setting By: Cyleena Rodriguez

This novel occurs in Ilium; a small town in New York in 1944-1945. While Billy Pilgrim travels in time, we travel throughout his entire life when he is "unstuck in time" from 1922-1976. We experience his war time in Germany and when he is captured to the planet Tralfamdore. "And Billy traveled in time to the zoo on Tralfamadore. He was forty-four years old, on display under a geodesic dome." Although the settings are portrayed to be private, Billy Pilgrim creates a public setting. For example, when he opens the french doors at the honey moon. Each environment can be described as negative and very dry. They all include negative diction and when he does experience positiveness it happens to be with a negative atmosphere like after Dresdon has been bombed by the Allies for the Germans to surrender, "Everything was beautiful, and nothing hurt."

Research (Article 1) By: Nikki Acosta

Pilgrim's Dilemma: Slaughterhouse Five

Thesis:

“In the following excerpt, Vanderwerken discusses Billy Pilgrim, focusing on the causes of his breakdown and how he is influenced by Tralfamadorianism.”

Annotations: 

1.) The contrast of Tralfamadorianism and Christianity: 

When introduced to the Tralfamadorians, Billy encounters their mentality of disregarding the morals of “free will” (mentioned on page 196) recalling everyone as “machines”, easy for manipulation. This contradicts the Christian belief that even though God controls all, because he created it, He grants mankind the gift of “free will” so that they choose God for themselves and learn to understand only God’s love. The aliens communicate telepathically rather than verbally. The planet of Tralfamadore also destroys other planets because of their constant experimentation with chemicals, and what not. The aliens disregard any mercy for any planets and in fact mention to Billy their plans of destroying Earth on page 149. Even after attempting a compromise to keep the safety of Earth, they respond without a word of salvation- simply seeking the destruction of others in turn exterminating the lives of innocent people no one survives. In the Christian belief, Jesus provides salvation to all mankind proclaiming a victoroius life to all who follow. Though salvation is provided through the blameless and voluntary life of Jesus Christ, one must repent in order to receive the salvation and cleansing of sin. From an outside perspective Christianity may be seen as a guilt system: sin, feel guilty, repent. In the realms within Tralfamadorianism, page 265 describes that everyone is “guilt-free” and that everything is simply right (page 255)- throwing away the morals Christianity teaches. In the Tralfamadorian belief, the person/alien controls their morals by their own individual discernment of ethics and immorality; which completely opposes the Bible’s “Ten Commandments” and will of which God controls over the lives of everyone and everything. Though many opposition in belief, Christianity and Tralfamadorianism both holdfast to a level of healthy optimism- being wise by focusing "one's attention on good moments".

2.) "Determinism without design, where chance rules"...

This statement displays how determinism is a great argument of both Christianity and the Tralfamadorians. The Bible reveals that God ordains a will and “life plan” for everyone, that chance and coincidence does not merely exist but every action partakes in the path that God created for every being before coming into existence. 

3.) ”Destroyed accidentally by the Tralfamadorians”... “‘Everything was beautiful, and nothing hurt.’”

Even though recalled by the article that the aliens accidentally terminate planets, Christians believe that the second coming of Christ foresees the end of the world. God will destruct the Earth and the universe for the nefarious influence of Satan on the people and for the corruption they have sought out. He will therefore establish His kingdom on the Earth once again. 

In the realm of Christianity, beauty and pain both cause the people to turn to God for refuge and praise. 

4.) “When Billy, full of revelations, returns to Earth ‘to comfort so many people with the truth about time,’” 

Billy, in the first sentence can be looked at as a Jesus character, thus representing how such a contrast of Tralfamadorianism and Christianity has a correlation of some sort. It describes how Billy “returns to Earth to comfort so many people with the truth about time” and similarly, mentioned in Luke 19:10, Jesus Christ also came as God as human flesh “to seek and to save that which was lost.”

5.) “It frees man from responsibility and from moral action.”

As part of the Tralfamadorian presumption, the actions and repercussions of their actions have no weight whatsoever because of heir “guilt-free” mentality. According to the aliens, the events and the intentions of people just occur and shouldn't be questioned. As part of the Christian faith Christ, the son of God, paid the ultimate sacrifice taking on the burden of mankind so humanity wouldn’t suffer eternal hell. 

6.) “If one ignores the ghetto or the Vietnam War, neither exists”

This statement represents the selfish paradigm of the Tralfamadorians. If one fails to consciously recognize issues and/or ignores them, suddenly they do not exist. The statement “There is no why” further enhances the aliens’ concept of selective attention, existing in a world of solely where one determines to live in- one of beauty and perfection. 

7.) “Tralfamadorianism is a ‘new lie,’ it recalls an ‘old lie’-God.”

The statement above proves how the Tralfamadorian belief system can be of great contradiction. The novel “Slaughterhouse-Five” includes how time is “constant” and continous, yet within the statement above, change exists. This contrasts the Christian belief that God never changes, mentioned in Hebrews 13:8, remaining the same “yesterday, today, and tomorrow.”

Character By: Cyleena Rodriguez

Billy Pilgrim is the protagonist within the novel and a very round character. Billy is static because throughout the novel he does not change. He appears to be scrawny and weak. We can describe Billy as being kind, wise, and free willing. "If I haven't spent so much time studying Earthlings," said the Traldamadorian, "I wouldn't have any idea what was meant by 'free will.' I've visited thirty-one inhabited planets in the universe, and I have studied reports on one hundred more. Only on Earth is there any talk of free will." While the story in jumping back and forth in time, we still experience Billy growing older and becoming more wise while captured by the Tralfamadorians.

Kurt Vonnegut can be described as contradicting when he's "in a nutshell", blunt, and humorous. Kurt is a flat character because we only know that he fought in the war. He is also a static since he does not change. We are unaware of his appearance but his personality can be perfectly described as sarcastic. "And even if the wars didn't keep coming like glaciers, there would still be plain old death." shows Kurt's bluntness. His humorous is shown when he says "All this responsibility such an early age made her a bitchy fibbertigibbet."Humor is portrayed with the phrase "So it goes" repeatedly said throughout the novel.

Valencia Merble is Billy Pilgrims wife in the novel. She is appeared to be a heavy women and can be described as kind, blinded by love, and vulnerable. Valencia is a flat character since we are unaware of much about her. She is also static as she does not change.

Syntax By: Rebecca Cruz and Nikki Acosta

Sentences predominately structured: The sentences in the novel are predominately simple even through complex sentences are also quite common. Mentioned within the first chapter the author seems to justify his unconscious intentions, "It is so short and jumbled and jangled, Sam, because there is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre. Everybody is supposed to be dead, to never say anything or want anything ever again." According to Vonnegut, such an event should be put to rest and therefore mentioned in tid bits (simple then random complex sentences) to further enhance the reason of selective remembrance.

Example of Simple: "Montana was under heavy sedation", "Billy owned a lonely Georgian home in Illium.", and "Billy Pilgrim checked into the Royalton Hotel on Forty-Fourth street in New York"

Example of Complex: "The room was small and simple, except that it was on the top floor, and had French doors which opened onto a terrace as large as the room", "Billy was out of bed, groping along a wall, trying to find a way out because he had to take a leak so badly" and "Billy still felt drunk, was still angered by the stolen steering wheel."

Vonnegut utilizes many simple sentences to illiterate the state of the narrator and of Billy- both witness the tragedy and trauma of massacre scaring both in their thought patterns and attention spans. In the same way, of course Vonnegut must use this to his advantage to also provide emphasis for certain aspects of Billy and events concerning Dresden. Thus proven within the spontaneous shifts of time travel within the plot and adjustments to different sentence structures when used to describe events and/or the characters of variety of people. For instance, in Chapter 2 "Billy was a chaplain's assistant in the war. A chaplain's assistant is customarily a figure of fun in the American Army. Billy was no exception. He was powerless to harm the enemy or to help his friends. In fact, he had no friends. He was a valet to a preacher, expected not promotions or medals, bore no arms, and had a meek faith in a loving Jesus which most soldiers found putrid." 

Such a change deriving from the simple sentences forces the reader to understand the facts fed to him/her and then comprehend more background to the character- allowing room for assumptions of the character of Billy and the state that he is currently in to be involved in such activity. When describing Billy, sentences tend to be different, inserting compound and complex sentences to reflect his unstable state: "Billy was unconscious for two days after that, and he dreamed millions of things, some of the them true." “Billy predicts his own death within an hour.” As observed from the text, the sentence structure also has relation to Billy's and/or the narrator's opinion of the person or subject describing. The descriptions of characters in which Billy does not necessarily hold high esteem to, such as of Lily, Valencia, Rumfoord, Weary, and flat characters tend to be short and simple. When describing Dresden, typically the sentences lingered longer to be compound and/or complex. When describing Montana the structure also varied, but longer sentences were mostly observed: “She meant that their keepers were making the electric clocks in the dome go fast, then slow, then fast again, and watching the little Earthling family through the peepholes.” This proves his adoring love for the Hollywood star. The Tralfamadorians received simple direct sentences which illuminated their concept that “time just is” and that “there was no why.” 

The prose structure reflects the central meaning of the Latin rooted word, translated as "straight-forward". Even though the author spits a vast amount of information covering the different periods of Billy's life, He is straight-forward with all information, most of which belongs to character descriptions of the people mentioned in the novel. In addition to the implementation of facts and description of, Vonnegut closes the many mentions of death with the emotionless repetition of: "So it goes". One of which shows the dissolute state of Billy and apathy influenced upon him by the Tralfamadorians: "Now, when I myself hear that somebody is dead, I simply shrug and say what the Tralfamadorians say about dead people, which is 'So it goes'." 

Diction By: Rebecca Cruz

Kurt Vonnegut switches from neutral to informal language in "SlaughterHouse-Five" through his different characters and his narration of the story. For example, at the end of chapter five Vonnegut exercises his use of both neutral and informal language by stating that "on the morning after the wet dream, Billy decided to go back to work in his office shopping plaza business was booming as usual." The basis of the diction he uses in these sentences is neutral; there are no overly formal words or overly informal words as the bulk. But by using "wet dream" and "booming" Vonnegut sprinkles strong type words into his sentences.

Diction By: Rebecca Cruz

Kurt Vonnegut switches from neutral to informal language in "SlaughterHouse-Five" through his different characters and his narration of the story. For example, at the end of chapter five Vonnegut exercises his use of both neutral and informal language by stating that "on the morning after the wet dream, Billy decided to go back to work in his office shopping plaza business was booming as usual." The basis of the diction he uses in these sentences is neutral; there are no overly formal words or overly informal words as the bulk. But by using "wet dream" and "booming" Vonnegut sprinkles strong type words into his sentences.

Point Of View By: Rebecca Cruz

"SlaughterHouse-Five" is written in third person limited omniscient. The first chapter is in first period.

The novel is mainly a recent perspective through each point in time Billy travels through. In some points towards the end, Billy begins to reminisce about past events rather than time travel to them.

This novel was written in the past tense.

In addition, the narrator is limited omniscient.

Biography By: Alex Kamareddine

Kurt Vonnegut was born on Nov. 11, 1922 in Indianapolis, Indiana to German-American 

parents. Right out of High School he matriculated to Cornell University. While at Cornell,

he enlisted in the U.S. Army. When he was in his early twenties, his mother committed

suicide overdosing on sleeping pills on Mother’s Day 1944. Undoubtedly, this 

unfortunate event marked the writer and would later be reflected in his novels as the

recurring theme of death, its unexpectedness, unavoidability and often ironical timing.

Other factors affected Vonnegut and are reflected in the novel Slaughterhouse-Five.

Serving as a private in the 423rd Infantry Regiment during WWII, he was captured

in the Battle of the Bulge. As a prisoner of war, Vonnegut lived first hand many of the

incidents he describes in the novel such as the bombing of Dresden and its aftermath.

As a lifetime member of the American Civil Liberties Union, Vonnegut was influenced

by socialist themes and this also comes through in the novel as the theme of human

dignity for all.

The Vietnam War and the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King

were factors that undoubtedly affected Vonnegut. He actually begins chapter 10 of

Slaughterhouse-Five with a retelling of these incidents. He describes how everyday

his government gives him a count of the “corpses created by military science in 

Vietnam.” The assassinations of the two political leaders further reflects the theme of

death.

                                                                                                      

The recurring symbol of Tralfamadore with its time traveling aliens as well as the

character of the sci-fi writer, Kilgore Trout, were no doubt inspired by the interest in 

UFOs and all things science fiction prevalent not only in the U.S., but in the entire

world around the time this novel was written.

Kurt Vonnegut died on April 11, 2007 from a brain injury in Manhattan, NY.

Irony By: Alex Kamareddine

Kurt Vonnegut’s novel Slaughterhouse-Five is highly ironic. There are several

types of irony employed by the author mainly situational , dramatic and verbal.

An example of situational irony would be that despite being as clumsy and ill-

equipped to deal with obstacles as he is, Billy Pilgrim manages to survive a

war and a plane crash. Another example would be the fact both Roland Weary

and Billy Pilgrim survive to become POWs but the two scouts who were guiding

them and much better equipped for survival , do not. The fact that the POWS

survive the bombing of Dresden because they have taken refuge in a “slaughter-

house”, a place usually associated with death is another example of irony.

An example of dramatic irony would be the that although Roland Weary spends

much time and energy saving Billy Pilgrim during the war, it is his dying wish to

have Pilgrim killed and makes Lazzaro promise to have it done. Another example

of this type of irony is the fact that “poor Edgar Derby is made to go before a firing

squad for stealing a teapot while Billy Pilgrim actually gets away with stealing a

large diamond without any consequences.

Verbal irony is used very effectively in this novel. The ironical understatement and

litote expressed repeatedly by the line “So it goes...” after each mention of a death

serves to ironically trivialize the enormity of this subject within the book.

Symbolism By: Alex Kamareddine

Three important symbols found in Kurt Vonnegut’s novel Slaughterhouse-Five  are

The Slaughterhouse, The Prayer, and The Optometrist.

The Slaughterhouse: The fact that the slaughterhouse, a place usually associated  with 

death, serves the prisoners of war as a refuge during the bombing and thereby allows 

them to survive is symbolic of the illusion of life and death. A place where death is 

supposed to happen actually serves a way to perpetuate life. “ He was down in the

meat locker on the night that Dresden was destroyed...The meat locker was a very safe

shelter.” “The rest of the guards had, before the raid began, gone to the comforts of their

own homes in Dresden. They were all being killed with their families.”(P. 177)

The Prayer: The prayer on the wall of Billy Pilgrim’s optometry office which is the same

as the prayer written on Montana Wildhack’s locket symbolizes the human condition 

and how humans must conform and accept this condition in the face of life’s 

uncertainties. “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage

to change the things I can, and wisdom always to tell the difference.”(Pp.60, 209)

The Optometrist: The fact that Billy Pilgrim is an optometrist and as such is in charge

of fixing people’s “vision” is symbolic of the fact that this character, through his war

experiences and his time travel, his having become “unstuck in time”, can give others

a glimpse into what life is really about. As an optometrist, Pilgrim is able to literally 

enhance other’s vision and make them see more clearly. “He was doing nothing less

now, he thought than prescribing corrective lenses for Earthling souls.”(P. 29)

These symbols are related to the text and therefore textual. Slaughterhouse-Five is a 

highly symbolic novel, these are but three of the many symbols within it.

Imagery By: Alex Kamareddine

In Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut uses various types of imagery to connect

the various parts of the novel as well as to underscore the theme. 

Color imagery is an important form of imagery used. The use of the colors “blue and 

ivory” to describe his own feet as well as those of corpses serves to show how close to 

death Pilgrim has come. How close death always is. The colors orange and black used

to describe both the banners on the POW trains, a tragic symbol and the tents at 

Pilgrim’s daughter’s wedding, a festive symbol, demonstrates how everything is

connected : past and present, positive and negative ...all is the same in the continuum

of time. The color violet is used to represent death and red, the time before birth.

Sounds accompany these colors. A hum with the violet light and a bubbling sound 

with the red.the violet hum places the reader in a relaxed state while the red bubbling 

suggests something is about to happen. The color green on the coffin shaped wagon 

is ironic as the color green signifies life while a coffin symbolizes death.

Olfactory imagery suggested by the recurring reference to the odor of “mustard gas

and roses”, two very different smells signifying life and death appear to show how

connected these two themes are within the novel. Pilgrim mentions it to describe his

drunken breath, in reference to his dog and to describe the smell of the Dresden 

corpses.

The pathetic image Pilgrim presents, that of “ a filthy flamingo” in his ill- fitting uniform

                                                                                                  

symbolizes how ill-equipped he is to handle his war experience. Real animals

and not just human flamingoes provide further imagery. The German Shepherd

whose ferocious bark seemed so threatening from afar turns out to be just a poor 

bitch named “Princess” unused to war ...”She was shivering. Her tail was between her 

legs.”(P.52) This imagery serves to tell the reader that things are not always what they 

seem. The recurring image of a bird seemingly asking the question...”Po-tee-weet?”

underscores the senselessness of life. There is no answer to the question, if indeed

it even is a question. The pathetic image of the horses carrying the green coffin shaped

wagon serves to show the dull suffering of these poor creatures who do not understand

what is going on, much like the men involved.

Themes By: Alex Kamareddine

The major theme of Kurt Vonnegut’s novel Slaughterhouse-Five, is fatalism, the role

fate plays in a person’s life and the connection free will has to that destiny. According

to Pilgrim’s Tralfamadorian guides there is no such thing as free will, everything is

predestined. “All moments, past, present and future, always have existed, always will 

exist.” (P. 27) It is useless to struggle against fate . This is the reason Pilgrim comes

across as a passive character. “It is all right” said Billy “Everything is all right, and 

everybody has to do exactly what he does. I learned that in Tralfamadore.(P.198)

The Tralfamadorians tell Pilgrim that time does not exist in the way he thinks. Everything 

occurs simultaneously. Time is “...just an illusion we have here on Earth.”(P.27) “Among 

the things Billy Pilgrim could not change were the past, the present, and the future.(P. 

60). As one Tralfamadorian tells Pilgrim...”Only on Earth is there any talk of free will”.(P. 

86). What will be has already been, there is no need to struggle against fate.

Another important theme of this novel is the horror of war. This theme is evinced by

the devastation caused by the bombing of Dresden .”It must have been hell on the 

ground”(P.198). The needless deaths of soldiers like Edgar Derby, young children

and old men serving as soldiers and the devastation of the landscape which ends up

resembling the surface of the moon covering “corpse mines”(P. 214) all tell of the 

senseless horror that is war.